Europe pushes back ETIAS entry system until 2024

Some 1.4 billion people from over 60 different world countries, who currently travel to the 27 Schengen Area countries without having to obtain a short-stay visa, will have to apply for an online travel authorization before any trip to the Member States, starting in 2024.

The European Union has been working on this travel authorization, which is called the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS), since 2016, in a bid to enhance security in Europe by being aware of who’s coming in advance.

Previously, the system was scheduled to become effective on November 2023, but without any announcement, the EU had silently postponed the launch of the ETIAS to 2024, in the summer of last year.

“ETIAS is expected to be operational in 2024,” is noted now in an informative page regarding the ETIAS published by the EU Commission’s Migration and Home Affairs, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

At the time, SchengenVisaInfo.com had contacted the EU Commission about the change of the date of the ETIAS launch and the reasons behind it, but even months after, the Commission has not responded to the email.

The ETIAS is a travel authorization that travellers from Schengen visa-free countries will have to apply for, starting from November this year. The application will be completed through the ETIAS website, which has not been launched yet, but will be published under the .eu domain on time before November.

It has been asserted that applying for an ETIAS will take around ten minutes, as travellers will have to upload their passport scan and a photo of theirs on the system, as well as answer several simple questions.